Thing symbol
In literary studies, inanimate objects, animals or plants are referred to as a thing symbol (also known as a falcon motif ) , which play a central, leitmotif role in a literary work as a symbol or symbol and thus also structurally depict deeper contexts of meaning.
The best-known example of a thing symbol is the falcon in the “ Falkennovelle ” (V / 9) from Giovanni Boccaccio's Decamerone : the only valuable possession left to a knight impoverished by opulent but futile courtship is his beloved hunting falcon. When, years later, the once adored appears to eat, he respectfully serves her the noble animal, as he has nothing else left to offer her befittingly. However, the lady had appeared to ask the falcon for her sick son, who could not recover without this gift. The boy then dies, the lady inherits his fortune, which she previously only managed, and marries the impoverished knight as a rich woman, who thus, contrary to expectations, still achieves his goals. At the turning point of the plot, the falcon becomes the symbol of the central conflict of the story.
Starting from this " falcon novella ", Paul Heyse formulated the falcon theory , which states that every novella must contain a central element analogous to Boccaccio's falcon. Research later expanded this term into a thing symbol.
See also
The blue flower as the central symbol of romance